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Marijuana-for-donation swaps test limits of Colorado law

People hang out and consume marijuana they brought themselves to the Front Tea & Art Shop in Lafayette on Feb. 1, 2013. There aren't yet rules for selling marijuana in Colorado, although people can trade and share. (Jeremy Papasso, Daily Camera)

His store's location stinks, the owner of the head shop admits.

It's in a nondescript building on an out-of-the-way road below the Colfax Avenue viaduct across from Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Unless you're trying to find Broncos parking, you might never even know there's a there there for a store to be.

So, to bring feet to his street, the owner of 4 Strains Pipe and Tobacco — which sells supplies for smoking this, that and what have you — came up with this marijuana-tinged ad on Craigslist:

"CO AMENDMENT 64 COMPLIANT.

21 AND UP GET YOUR 2 GRAMS OF BUD FREE WITH $30 OR MORE PURCHASE IN OUR HEAD SHOP.

THIS IS FREE AS A GIFT. ONE GIFT PER DAY PER PERSON.

NO JOKE."

In post-marijuana-legalization Colorado, the pitch is bold. It's creative. But is it legal?

Since Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 in November, dozens of offers for "free" marijuana have sprung up on the frontier between legal and illegal.

Craigslist is home to numerous ads offering free marijuana for a donation. Backpage, another ad site, has more.

Each ad has essentially the same hook: It's not the pot you're paying for.

"i can gift my smoke to others and am taking donations for power/rent," one ad states.

Amendment 64 allows adults to give one another up to an ounce of marijuana, provided it is done "without remuneration." What exactly that means, though, is still being worked out by lawmakers, regulators and a task force appointed to suggest rules for legal marijuana in the state.

Ro Silva, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Revenue, which will eventually oversee recreational-marijuana businesses, said the state currently doesn't have any rules on when an exchange of marijuana and money is a sale and when it's something else.

The owner of 4 Strains — who asked to be identified only as Mike P. because he is worried about robbers coming to his home — said he consulted with a lawyer prior to posting his ad and is doing everything in good faith with the law.

"The marijuana is not for sale," he said. "You're actually purchasing smoking accessories, tobacco, T-shirts, fine art. As a gift for them patronizing our store, we're giving them 2 grams of marijuana for free. ... It's just an incentive."

Sederberg, though, said the position is a risky one and that police and the courts could see it differently.

"The concept of remuneration has not been clearly established," he said.

Colorado Springs police this month arrested three men allegedly behind a marijuana-for-donation delivery service. Billygoatgreen MMJ advertised on Facebook and Craigslist and offered to give pot for free while soliciting "suggested donation[s] towards researching [marijuana] and improving our cultivation operation," according to an e-mail the service's owners wrote to the Colorado Springs Independent.

According to court documents, when an undercover officer set up two separate deliveries to hotel rooms, the deliveryman handed over more than an ounce each time — albeit split into plastic baggies each holding less than an ounce. The court documents don't mention anything about the money that the officer gave the deliveryman being called a donation.

Pritchard Garrett, Shilo Campbell and Matthew Alther were arrested on suspicion of felony marijuana distribution in connection with the Billygoatgreen case. They could not be reached for comment.

Sederberg said the frontier era of Colorado marijuana law will likely civilize quickly. Regulations are coming. Court rulings will help clarify things. It may be only a matter of time until remuneration comes to include donation.

"The bigger point," he said, "is we need to get the regulated marketplace in place as soon as possible.

"Ultimately, I think a lot of this is going to go away."

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold

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